Woodside High on Stage

Little Shop of Horrors

Woodside High School Production 2012

Students at Woodside High School have worked hard from September through until February rehearsing and preparing a production of Little Shop of Horrors, the popular 1960s spoof horror musical. For many of the performers and audience, it was their first full scale theatre experience, so it was an exciting event for the school and a turning point for Drama Productions at Woodside. With new lighting and sound facilities at the school the production looked stunning, using moving lights and smoke machines to create an atmospheric, professional experience. The set and scenery were designed and created by the outstanding GCSE Art students, showing what great results can be achieved with successful cross-curricular planning. Many thanks and praise to the superb Art teachers for their hard work. We also hired in some full scale puppets for the man-eating plant ‘Audrey 2’ which were big enough to swallow students on stage and gave both audience and cast a big thrill! The cast were fully costumed and not only looked great, but clearly enjoyed wearing their outfits and taking part in the performance. It was a delight to see them on stage, enjoying themselves so much. The cast featured a broad spectrum of performers, from year 7 through to year 10, even including some fantastic cameo performances by staff, and gave all participants a chance to shine, improving self esteem, confidence and providing a great sense of achievement. There were some fantastic individual  performances with Umut Ekinci as a hilarious pshycho-dentist, Vinesh Veerasami as a manic, money-grabbing Mr Mushnik, Camilla Barbetti as a dreamy and romantic Audrey and Josh Stevenson, leading the company as a superb Seymour Krelbourn, the hapless and geeky owner of the killer-plant.

Our first two shows were a sell-out, as the students performed to a packed hall of family, friends, staff and peers. Events like this are an excellent way of developing the extended community at Woodside, and it was a real pleasure to see so much support from families and friends. It was a truly marvellous experience for all involved, raising the profile of the performing arts at Woodside and providing a really positive end to a very successful half term.

Many thanks to the Head Teacher and leadership team for their support; to the Art department for their set and scenery, to Richard Lambert at Lambco for the superb lighting, Scenetec for the fantastic puppets and to all the staff who gave up many long evenings for rehearsals!

Click here to see some pictures of the production.

Jacob Thomas

Head of Drama